George Kirk (alternate reality)
| children = | actor = Chris Hemsworth }} '''George Kirk was a Human Starfleet officer in the early 23rd century who was noted for saving the lives of eight hundred people during his twelve minute tenure as Captain of the during an attack by the Narada. Biography Early life George was born in 2204. ( ; ) When Kirk was a kid, he owned a BX-70 motorcycle. According to his son, Kirk would put Winona on the back and it drove her nuts. ( ) Service and sacrifice In 2233, Lieutenant Commander George Kirk was serving as first officer aboard the USS Kelvin under Captain Richard Robau when it was diverted by Starfleet to investigate a mysterious singularity. The Romulan ship Narada, under the command of Captain Nero, emerged through the black hole from the year 2387 and began firing upon the Kelvin, severely damaging the ship. When Robau left the Kelvin to negotiate a cease fire, he left Kirk in command of the ship. Before he departed, Robau told Kirk to prepare to evacuate the Kelvin and set the ship on autopilot. When the Narada resumed firing, it became apparent that it never had any intention of negotiating a cease fire. Kirk followed the orders he was given and gave the order to abandon ship. Among those being evacuated was Kirk's wife, , who was aboard the ship and was going into labor with their son. She was to be evacuated and Kirk promised to join her shortly thereafter. Attempts to set the ship on autopilot failed, however, and Kirk was forced to remain on board to prevent the Narada from destroying the evacuation shuttles. He set the Kelvin on a collision course with the Narada. As the Kelvin ''charged on its suicide course, George used the ships weapons to shoot down the ''Narada's ''missiles before they could impact the fleeing shuttles and escape pods (saving the shuttle containing his wife in the process), saving further lives in the process. In his last moments, Kirk was in contact with Winona as she gave birth to their son. They were trying to find a name for their child and he suggested naming the baby after Winona's father, James, rather than his . The last thing George Kirk heard before dying in the collision with the ''Narada were the cries of his newborn . His sacrifice disabled the enemy ship and saved the lives of eight-hundred people. Legacy Captain wrote his dissertation on the Kelvin and George Kirk. Pike came to admire Kirk, describing him as a man who did not believe in "no-win scenarios" and as someone who had the instinct to leap without looking, a trait he felt Starfleet had lost by the 2250s. Because George died prematurely, James Tiberius Kirk never knew his father and thus never had an inspiration to join Starfleet. Instead, he spent his early years as a rebel and trouble-maker, until he was finally convinced by Pike to enlist in Starfleet and dared to do better than his father who had saved the lives of the crew of an entire ship, (when as Pike mention's his total command time of the Kelvin ''was only twelve minutes); a dare James would eventually satisfy by saving the entire Earth population and any other planetary population that otherwise might have been destroyed by Nero as the acting captain of the in 2258. Pike reflected to James that George would be proud of his actions. ( ) When James sacrificed himself to save his own crew on the ''Enterprise in 2259, he heard the voices of his father and mother as he lay between life and death. ( ) In 2263, two days before James' birthday, and James shared a drink together, remembering George. During the conversation, McCoy mentioned that James had spent much of his time trying to be like his father. ( ) Appendices Appearances * : ** ** (archive voice only) References * : ** Background information George Kirk was played by Chris Hemsworth. In the script of , George Kirk was referred to as being thirty-two years old at the time of his death and he was further described as having an "all-American face." http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Star-Trek.html As director of the film Star Trek, J.J. Abrams specifically asked for Chris Hemsworth to portray George Kirk, though the actor had only been working in America a few months beforehand. He received notification of the role one day after he returned to Los Angeles following a couple of months of filming in Chicago. "I had a phone call from my manager saying that I needed to drive across right away to Paramount Studios and meet J.J. Abrams in his office to do the scene," Hemsworth explained. "I cancelled what I was doing, drove over there, did the scene in his office at his desk and he said, 'Fantastic – we have to work together. You start next week.' And that was it!" Although Abrams didn't share much information with the performer at that time, Hemsworth did use a genuine scene from the movie for his audition. He had very little time to prepare for the role, though there wasn't a lot he could do to ready himself for the part anyway. ( ) Since this character had never appeared before, Abrams and Hemsworth were free to collaborate on the portrayal of George Kirk. "On set we discussed how we wanted to play it," remembered Hemsworth. "J.J. had very specific ideas about what we wanted to achieve, but he's also the kind of director that gives you the freedom to try other things and put your own interpretation on it. It was more a case of taking the scenes that we had, and finding the truth in what was being said, then just playing that and trusting in the overall picture J.J. was creating and that the writers had done for us." ( ) Constructing a backstory for his own character, Hemsworth came to the opinion that George Kirk is "someone who has quite a strong sense of justice. He's that old-fashioned kind of good guy: he has strong morals and puts other people before himself. But he was also played as someone in his mid-20s. He's still quite young, so I think a lot of who he is was ingrained, maybe through his upbringing. I feel like he had a pretty strong sense of character, and especially to be put in the position he is at such a young age says a lot about who he is." ( , pp. 91-92) In many ways, Chris Hemsworth was relieved that, because there wasn't much rehearsal time, he didn't have long to consider what he was letting himself in for by playing James Kirk's father. "That was funny," he remarked. "In a really good way, I was thankful for not having enough time to think about it, because the turnaround from the audition to when I was shooting was so quick. I didn't have too much time to think about the pressure that was built around it. But afterward, the more I heard about it, I started hoping I did an okay job! .... There were a couple of times when I was sitting there on set, and I thought that it doesn't get any bigger than this, in terms of money, expertise and everything that's put into making a film. And I wondered what I was doing there! But ... it was mind-blowing and exciting." Also, Hemsworth found his confidence regarding his performance was boosted by Abrams. ( ) Although referred to George Kirk as being a lieutenant when he was killed, Kirk actually wore the rank braids of a lieutenant commander; Spock may have been abbreviating his rank in a non-traditional manner as lieutenant commanders are usually referred to as commanders. Deanna Troi, Geordi La Forge and Shelby have also both been addressed as lieutenants (in , , and , respectively) while clearly holding the rank of lieutenant commander. It should also be noted though that Starfleet rank insignia has changed over time (for example, no stripes on uniforms in pilot episode but stripes throughout the rest of Star Trek: The Original Series) and sometimes first officers have been seen wearing higher ranks than their commission, such as Spock wearing a commander's rank stripes in TOS Season 1 despite being a lieutenant commander. Chris Hemsworth received credit in Star Trek Into Darkness for use of his voice in audio s of the first film. George Kirk may have a brother, since James T. Kirk said he was staying at his uncle's farm in . It was never made clear which of his parents had a sibling, though, or if he was just using the term for a long-time family friend. In , an was cut from the script and reworked into Winona's new husband heard in the film. Apocrypha The name "George" for James Kirk's father first originated in Vonda N. McIntyre's TOS novel Enterprise: The First Adventure. Intel's Star Trek tie-in website gave his serial number as SA-733-9624-AM. The virtual collectible card battle game Star Trek: Rivals is using his picture for card #76, Acting Captain G. Kirk. IDW Publishing's comic "Keenser's Story" depicts him as having been present for first contact with the Roylans (Keenser's people). After Keenser helps them fix their shuttle, he befriends George on the ride back to the Kelvin, having chosen to go with him with the intention of signing up for Starfleet Academy. External link * de:George Kirk fr:George Kirk it:George Kirk Category:Humans Category:USS Kelvin personnel Category:Starfleet command personnel